The Hillsboro R-3 School District has bought 15 acres of land along Leon Hall Parkway in Hillsboro for $825,000 from the estate of Diane Hall, who died last summer.
Hillsboro Board of Education members voted unanimously Feb. 25 to approve the purchase.
Superintendent Jon Isaacson said the district will use a lease-purchase to buy the property, paying approximately $60,000 a year over 15 years for the property.
He said the interest rate for the lease purchase is 2.19 percent.
Hall sold most of what locals refer to as the “Hall Farm” to Comtrea in 2012, which in turn sold the 45 acres to the school district in 2019.
Isaacson said the purchase of the additional property along Leon Hall Parkway includes the house where Diane Hall lived and an outbuilding.
Isaacson said the house will be of use to the district.
“The purchase allows us to address two specific areas,” he said.
“One, it will allow us to move our Alternative School into the house. Right now, the Alternative School is in space above our Board Room in the Learning Center (next to Hillsboro Intermediate along Business 21 in Hillsboro). Two, it will enable the district to move our Central Office onto campus where the Alternative School is. Central Office currently is at 5 Ridgewood Drive along Business 21.”
Isaacson said moving the Central Office closer to staff is a benefit, as is having a “stand-alone” space for the Alternative School, which serves students who are at risk of dropping out of school.
The Alternative School will be renamed the Ridge Alternative Program, he said.
District leaders intend to eventually sell the building at 5 Ridgewood Drive, Isaacson said.
“We anticipate closing on the property in the next few weeks,” Isaacson said. “As soon as possible, we hope to work out the logistics (of the remodeling required for the moves of the Alternative School and Central Office).”
The Hillsboro School District paid $990,000 for the 45 acres it previously bought from Comtrea.
The district calls the property the Bridle Ridge Farm and uses it for a variety of educational and community purposes.
For example, the farm is the home of the Hillsboro High School agriculture program, Isaacson noted.